Sophia
by bauer05
Summary: He jumped when he felt a hand touch his shoulder, turning around he saw that it was a young woman in a long red dress. Much like Cinderella's, he noted. The woman said nothing as she smiled and guided him towards the circle of dance people. Travis followed her, curious to see what she would do. Rated T to be safe. Oneshot


Travis stared at the sights around him. Children laughed, men and women danced merrily around the fire and people watched on, chatting happily as the music echoed around them. The mountains around the meadow where the village was settled was breathtaking, it radiated calmness and serenity, contrasting deeply to the merry chaos in the village below.

He jumped when he felt a hand touch his shoulder, turning around he saw that it was a young woman in a long red dress. Much like Cinderella's, he noted. The woman said nothing as she smiled and guided him towards the circle of dance people. Travis followed her, curious to see what she would do. His senses were on high alert for any monster attacks. The woman then grasped his hands and led him into a merry jig. Laughing and smiling together they danced far into the night.

No unusual thoughts were on Travis' mind. Despite the fact that the village people were strangely dressed in robes, or that the image he saw was constantly rippling as though it was a reflection in water. Travis was oblivious. All that mattered to him was Sophia.

Sophia and her long red Cinderella dress. Sophia and her cherry red lips. Sophia and her chocolate brown hair that cascaded down her back in thick, shiny curls. Sophia, whose eyes were an intense shade of green and gleamed with something other than the happiness and purity that she radiated.

Travis didn't know how long he and Sophia had been dancing for. All he knew was that the sun had disappeared and the moon had taken its place. The Moon that seemed to be screaming some unknown, unheard warning to him. He began to feel strange, he had turned away from the moon and had now realised that the music had stopped, the merry people were nowhere to be seen.

"What? How?" Travis looked around, confused by the vision that surrounded him.

"Shhh Love, our dance is far from over" Sophia held Travis' hands once again and he was forced to look into her eyes. Her unusually intense blue eyes.

Once again they both began to dance. The merry music and people had returned. All was well. Sophia was smiling and giggling as she danced with Travis. Her bright blue dress illuminating the atmosphere around him.

Sophia began to stare into Travis' eyes, leaning into him. Travis immediately leaned in closer, ignoring the flickering image as the colour began to fade around him. He cupped her chin and lead his fingers through her long braided blonde hair. They kissed.

The world was spinning but Travis took no notice of that. Sophia was all that he could think of.

Sophia and her long black dress knitted from cobwebs. Sophia and her blood stained lips. Sophia and her grey hair that was tied in a heap on her head. Sophia, whose eyes were only holes in her mottled grey skull and screamed out hunger and death.

She was perfect. Sophia was perfect.

Travis broke away from the kiss. His vision swam a little bit but he had never felt more alive, not even the knife that Sophia had thrust into his chest could stop him from feeling elated.

Travis smiled as Sophia yanked the knife from his chest and forced him to stagger back. He didn't stop smiling, not even when Sophia pushed him to the ground and desperately licked the blood from his wound. He even laughed at her playfulness as she bent over and slit his wrists, draining the blood and life from within him.

"Sophia, oh how you make my world complete!" He proclaimed as she leaned over him, sneering and hissing s foul smell that reeked of evil and death.

Travis was beginning to lose conscious, his head lulling to the side and his eyes unable to focus on anything. Still he laughed and smiled at Sophia's antics, she was beautiful.

Sophia and her tatty rags woven from human skin. Sophia and her cracked, wart covered, blood stained lips. Sophia and her scabby, leech covered scalp. Sophia, whose eyes were sew shut by human hair and leaked the tar black liquid of stolen dreams.

She was the woman of his dreams. Sophia was the centre of his universe.

"Oh Sophia! How I love you! How could I live without you by my side!" Travis yelled out to her with all his might.

Sophia did not reply. Instead she raised the bone dagger to the air and brought it down onto his neck.

Travis's vision went black, his mind engulfed in blackness. He could not feel his body. He could not even bare to think anything. He didn't even know his own name or how he came to be in this pit of darkness.

Travis Stoll was no more than particles soaring through a dark abyss underground. Sophia had killed him.

Connor Stoll stood by his brothers bed in the Camp Half Blood infirmary. Travis had been the unfortunate victim caught in the crossfire of Danni and Elena's eternal arguments. Both girls were daughters of Hecate, and had both thrown two mysterious vials at each other that apparently weren't meant to mix. As Travis had been running away from Clarisse LaRue, he had ran between the two girls and had been hit with the mysterious potions. Travis had fallen to the ground and had started to writhe and shake violently. The sight had terrified Connor, who had been paralysed in fear as he saw his brother begin bleed whilst laughing and smiling. Both Nico and Will Solace had rushed over and carried him to the infirmary. Ambrosia and Nectar had been given to Travis immediately and that was enough to stop the physical effects of the vials.

Connor had flat out refused to move from his brothers bedside and had sat there day and night for the past week. He had watched his brother go through fitful nightmares from which he constantly yelled out "Sophia" before he had suddenly gone quiet, the worst of it evidently over.

It was on the seventh day that Travis finally awoke. He was dazed and confused. Connor had rushed over and engulfed his older brother in a hug. It was then when something happened that hadn't happened since before they came to Camp Half Blood. Travis began to weep. Loud and anguished sobs escaped the older boy and his body rattled with pure force of them. It scared Connor that one mishap and the mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time had caused his brother to fall apart.

Connor had held Travis and had continually told him how much he loved him until Travis finally drifted off into sleep.

He needed to find out what happened, what had broken his brother so much.

He needed to know who Sophia was.


End file.
